“Nancy helped them. They promised her Don would be one of the first people to take advantage of their studies. Probably said they had donors for her. He would get the magic bullet first. She decided not to wait for that. Once she realized we were on to her, she ran and took you with her.”
She swallowed when she saw the misery in his eyes. “Nancy’s dead, isn’t she?”
He lay completely still, watching her closely. “Yes, she is. George, Marshall, and I found you before Don had drained you completely, but I had to kill him to make him stop. It was the only way, I swear. He’d locked on to your artery. We had to stop that. I wanted to kill him for what he did to you, but I made it fast. He didn’t even yell.”
She stared at him, just listening.
“Marshall gave you blood while I removed Don from you and healed the wound. I couldn’t have done that alone. You were too weak to lose any more blood. You got most of your blood from Nancy. Cristos deemed it necessary. She had to die for using compulsion, and you needed blood.”
“But I didn’t kill her.”
He shook his head slightly, his hair rustling against the pillow. “No, you know you didn’t. She was already dead, Roz. Condemned by her own actions. Cristos delivered the verdict, began the exchange, and then knocked her out. She wouldn’t have felt anything.” His mouth flattened, the first sign she’d seen of the ruthless side of Andreas Constant since she’d woken up. “Frankly I wouldn’t have cared. Not after what she did to you.”
She stared at him for a long time, not entering his mind, just watching him and thinking. He’d suffered for her. She had no doubt he would have died for her if he’d had to. But she was glad he hadn’t.
“Andreas, I wanted to call you, but Nancy said you’d already called. You were on your way to London, she said, and you wanted to let me know, but you hadn’t wanted to talk to me. I should have known then. You always confront your problems head-on, don’t you?”
He continued to watch her, but his head inclined in a reluctant nod.
“I was mad at you, but not entirely sorry. I didn’t want to face you again if you didn’t want me.”
She watched his face, and this time he responded, his arms looped around her back, pulling her close. “Oh, I wanted you all right. After George found the smear of blood on your bedroom door, I knew for sure you were in trouble. I was so scared. Scared I’d lost you, scared I’d never see you again, that I wouldn’t find you in time!”
His grip tightened, and she gasped for breath. “But you did. You found me. Are you still going to London? Would you mind if I came with you?”
“Mind!” He laughed shakily. “Mind? I thought you wouldn’t want to come. You know, with your previous—”
“Life,” she finished for him gently. “Andreas, if you don’t let me loose, I’m going to suffocate.”
With a bark of laughter, he released her so she could prop herself up, her elbows on each side of his muscular chest. She bent and swiped her tongue over a nipple, but pulled away again when she heard his gasp and felt the nipple instantly tighten. “Andreas, London is very different from the city I used to know. Even if it wasn’t, I’d rather go there with you than spend time here on my own. I don’t want you to go alone.”
“I’m not going.” He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “Fabrice is.”
“Fabrice?”
“Yeah. After…what happened to him, he’s a man, just a man. All his abilities have gone. For good, according to the experts Cristos consulted. He wants to start again in a place where people don’t know him so well. Cristos gave him the assignment instead. It’s the best lead we have from Nancy’s files. Some London-based company. The Talents there will know his past history, sure, but not him. It’s what he wants.”
“You’ll miss him, won’t you?”
“Not half as much as I’d miss you. I want us together. I want to be with you for as long as you can take me. Will you think about it?”
She lifted one hand and sleeked it over his chest. She couldn’t help it; the expanse of smooth muscle invited her touch. In return, he cupped her breast, gently thumbing her nipple until it stood out in proud relief. “I don’t need to think about it. Yes, Andreas, I want to stay with you.”
“Marry me?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
Even then he didn’t drag her down as she expected. Instead, he stared up at her, and she felt him enter her mind. His tentative entry almost made her weep. Unsure of his welcome, unsure if he could trust her answer. Not because he didn’t trust her, but because he didn’t trust himself. Deep down Andreas felt unworthy. Under all that male arrogance, his certainty of purpose, dwelt a small boy abandoned on the streets of New York to fend for himself, bewildered by his strange desire to take blood, scared by the powerful fangs that shot out of his mouth when he smelled blood or even thought of it.
“Andreas, I love you. I want to try to have a family with you, but if we don’t succeed, I don’t really care. You’ve given me the two most precious things I’ll ever have. My life and your love.”
Then he did draw her down to take her in a deep, loving kiss. Still, he was gentle with her, as though afraid she might break. She supposed if she’d been through the experience he’d just suffered, she might feel the same, but he should know she’d recovered; he should feel her health. His mind was joined to hers.
With a powerful surge of muscle, he pushed off the bed, taking her with him. “I want to get the debriefing over with so we can have our leave. Is that okay with you?”
“I guess.”
He wouldn’t let her walk but carried her to the shower. Was he planning to coddle her from now on? He must know she couldn’t bear that. He wasn’t the only one with a libido.
Andreas’s shower was a walk-in tiled area of a huge bathroom, with a half-height wall separating it from the rest of the room. Half of it contained the shower, and the other half contained his bath, sunk half into the floor. He touched a pressure switch, and the shower came on like sweet April rain, cascading gently on to the tiled floor, tilted slightly so the water ran straight to the drain against one wall. The off-white tiles gave a softer glow than stark white would have done. He set her carefully on her feet under the water, and she tilted her head back so the shower could shield her face and hair.
“Oh, this is lovely!” she exclaimed. Nothing like a near-death experience to make a person appreciate the simple things in life.
He smiled, reaching for a bottle of shower gel. He hovered his hand over a washcloth, but passed over it. Instead he squeezed a puddle of gel into his hand. She shuddered in anticipation.
He washed her. Every bit of her skin and her hair, from her head to her feet. Resting in his mind, she felt his need. He wanted to touch her, make sure she was completely healed, that no mark remained on her. She could have told him, but he needed the reassurance this gave him. And she relished his exploration.
At first he skimmed over her more sensitive parts, but when she drew closer, licked his wet skin, lapped drops off his chest like a cat tasting cream, he gave in. Lifting her breasts in his hands, he stroked her nipples gently until they began to crinkle and peak for him, then bent his head and took a nipple between his teeth. She moaned, hoping the sound would encourage him. “Andreas, don’t stop. You need reassurance? Well, so do I, but I don’t want it the same way. I want to feel us together, joined. Make love to me, Andreas.”
He released her nipple, letting it slide out of his mouth slowly, lingering to savor the texture and taste. “I don’t think I have much choice,” he whispered, his voice hoarse with longing. “I’ll die if I don’t love you now.”
His erection swelled hard between them, pressing against his belly and hers. She slid her hand up his back, tracing the groove of his backbone, cupping his buttocks in both her hands, teasing, relishing the feel of this man under her palms before sliding one hand around to take his straining cock in a firm grip. With her other hand, she cupped his balls, lifting them, sliding t
hem from one side of her palm to the other under their layer of soft skin, fuzzed with dark hair.
“How long do you think you can last?”
“Not long.” His voice had sunk to a whisper of breath, hotly touching her forehead with yearning.
“Let’s see.” Need overcame her. She had to know he belonged to her, lay her claim for all time. Sinking slowly to her knees, she opened her mouth and took him in, letting the downward momentum of her body impel her forward. While her hand moved over the lower part of his shaft, she caressed the sensitive head with lips and tongue, tickling the tiny slit in the center until he moaned her name, over and over.
He groaned, and the sensations she felt in his mind were delicious. She wanted it all, wanted to do more than taste him, wanted to take all of him.
He bent and slid his hands under her armpits, dragging her up his body while he took the step that brought them to the tiled wall.
One part of her mind registered surprise that the wall wasn’t cold. They must have been in the shower longer than she’d thought. But she had no more time to think, because with an animal growl he pushed her up against the wall and drove into her.
“Ah God!”
“No, just Andreas Constant needing to be inside you. You can do that again another time, but now, I want this!” He shoved hard, driving himself deep, and deeper still. She shattered, came apart around him, sensation forcing everything else out of her mind, everything but the reality of this moment. He withdrew, drove in again, and she flung her arms around his shoulders, lifted her legs to curl around his back, her heels resting on his buttocks as she let her lover take control and guide her, stroke by stroke, into ecstasy.
At the peak of her climax, she threw back her head and howled, past words, past anything but sheer awareness of this man and their love. Dimly she heard his answering growl, then his shout as he released everything into her.
She didn’t know how long they stood there, the warm tiles against her back, warm water trickling over their coupled bodies, but eventually she lifted her head from his shoulder and opened her eyes. “Will it always be like this?”
He smiled, a smile of possession, pride, and love. “You’d better believe it.”
Loose Id Titles by Lynne Connolly
Texas Heat
The SERIES NAME Series
Cat’s Eyes
Topaz Delirium
Liquid Crystal
Chemistry of Evil
Crystal Captive
Treasure Laid Bare
Crystal Tides
Jewel of the Dragon
Griffin’s Treasure
Bloody Crystal
Rubies of Fire
Lynne Connolly
Lynne Connolly lives in England with her family and her mews, a cat called Jack. She spends her time writing and filling her collection of doll’s houses. After acceptance by her first e-publisher she hasn’t looked back. She has over 30 books out, and plans for more. She writes in the paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and historical romance genres and she likes to add a lot of steam!
Go to http://lynneconnolly.com to read up on the latest news about Lynne.
Table of Contents
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Loose Id Titles by Lynne Connolly
Lynne Connolly
Department 57: Rubies of Fire Page 22
